Six Leafy Greens That Are Healthier Than Kale

by Nick Meyer

Nowadays kale is so popular that there are people walking around with t-shirts bearing its name, resembling that of a famous Ivy League college (that would be Yale in case you’re wondering).

The dark leafy green that no one wanted is now showing up in everything from smoothies to salad recipes to kale chips.

In just a few short years, it’s gone from an afterthought to one of the biggest symbols of the organic food movement, and there’s no denying it’s spot as one of the healthiest overall foods out there.

But if you’re like me you probably gotten, well, a little bit tired of it. Just because it’s cheap and ridiculously healthy doesn’t mean we need to eat it every day, especially when there are so many more interesting things to throw in our salads.

And contrary to popular belief, kale isn’t the be-all, end-all of leafy greens when it comes to being the healthiest — there are actually plenty of similar greens (with more flavor in my humble opinion) to try that are more nutritionally dense, and sometimes by a big margin.


Rainbow chard, shown here, is more nutritionally dense than kale according to one recent study.(Image Credit)

Six Foods That Have More Nutrients Per Ounce than Kale

Kale is still a wonderful value at as little as $1.99 for a bunch even in the organic section. But can you really call it the #1 superfood among greens?

Not according to the 2014 CDC study ‘Defining Powerhouse Fruits and Vegetables: A Nutrient Density Approach.’

It ranked produce on a scale of 1-100 to find out which foods were the most nutritious.Kale checked in at a  respectable nutrient density score of 49.07.

But the following greens have it beat:

1. Chicory- Resembling the dandelion green, this unheralded veggie can be added to salads. It checked in with a nutrient density score of 73.36. It has a nice profile ofVitamins A, C, and E among others.

2. Spinach- Long thought to have less nutrients than kale, spinach actually scored far better with a total of 86.43.

It’s a great source of Vitamin K, Vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids), manganese, folateand more.

3. Beet Green- Think you should throw these away? Think again!

They scored a whopping 87.27 in the study. Add these to your diet for added Vitamin A, K and lutein/zeaxanthin (for vision health).

Don’t forget to eat the greens on top of the beet as well. (Image Credit)

4. Chard- Also known as Swiss chard, this cousin of collard greens came in at 89.27. It’s a great change-of-pace to kale and a wonderful source of Vitamins A, K, and the important mineral magnesium.

5. Chinese Cabbage- Most people know this veggie as bok choy but few actually buy it. That’s a big mistake!

Bok choy scored a 91.99 on the nutrient density scale and is rich in silica for great hair, skin and nails as well as Vitamins A, B and K.

6. Watercress- A great source of magnesium, folate, pantothenic acid and many different vitamins and minerals, watercress comes in at #1 with a perfect score of 100.

It’s so easy to pass up in the grocery store and so hard to find that we don’t see it passing kale in terms of its reputation for being a top health food any time soon.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pass up a chance to add it to your shopping cart if you get the chance…your body will thank you!

http://truththeory.com/2015/04/16/six-leafy-greens-that-are-healthier-than-kale/

Plants Can Hear Themselves Being Eaten

by Janet Fang

Cabbage butterfly caterpillar feeding on Arabidopsis plant where, on an adjacent leaf, a piece of reflective tape helps record vibrations

A small, flowering plant called Arabidopsis thaliana can hear the vibrations that caterpillars trigger when they chew on its leaves. According to a new study, the plants can hear danger loud and clear, and they respond by launching a chemical defense. 

From anecdotes and previous studies, we know that plants respond to wind, touch, and acoustic energy. “The field is somewhat haunted by its history of playing music to plants. That sort of stimulus is so divorced from the natural ecology of plants that it’s very difficult to interpret any plant responses,” says Rex Cocroft from the University of Missouri, Columbia. “We’re trying to think about the plant’s acoustical environment and what it might be listening for.”

In this first example of plants responding to ecologically relevant vibrational sounds (i.e. predation), Cocroft and Mizzou’s Heidi Appel combined audio and chemical analyses. First, they placed a tiny piece of reflective tape on a leaf; that way, using a laser beam, they can measure the leaf’s movements as the caterpillar munches. 

After they recorded the seemingly inaudible vibrational sounds of caterpillar chewing, they played the recordings back to one set of Arabidopsis plants, while silence was played to another set. To mimic the acoustic signature of feeding, they used piezoelectric actuators, tiny speakers that play vibrations instead of airborne sound. “It’s a delicate process to vibrate leaves the way a caterpillar does while feeding, because the leaf surface is only vibrated up and down by about 1/10,000 of an inch,” Cocroft explains in an university blog post. “But we can attach an actuator to the leaf with wax and very precisely play back a segment of caterpillar feeding to recreate a typical 2-hour feeding session.”

Then, they let cabbage butterfly caterpillars eat about a third of three leaves on each plant from both sets. They gave the plants 24 to 48 hours to respond to the attack, after which the leaves were harvested. “We looked at glucosinolates that make mustards spicy and have anticancer properties and anthocyanins that give red wine its color and provide some of the health benefits to chocolate,” Appel says. “When the levels of these are higher, the insects walk away or just don’t start feeding.”

Plants with prior exposure to feeding vibrations released higher amounts glucosinolates (like mustard oil), an unappealing chemical for the bugs. Feeding vibrations signal changes in the plant cells’ metabolism, Appel explains, creating more defensive chemicals to repel the attack. The work was published in Oecologia this week. Here’s a great video where you can see and hear caterpillars chomping on plants:

Remarkably, plants exposed to vibrations from wind or different insect sounds didn’t increase their chemical defenses. They seem to tell the difference between feeding vibrations and other common sources.

“This research also opens the window of plant behavior a little wider, showing that plants have many of the same responses to outside influences that animals do, even though the responses look different,” Appel says in a news release. The duo is working on figuring out how vibrations are sensed by the plants. 

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/plants-can-hear-themselves-being-eaten

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